Avian eggs may be used in the production of biologics such as viruses for vaccines, wherein such biologics must be harvested from the eggs at the appropriate time. One method of producing biologics is to use fertilized avian eggs. The desired biologics are grown within the egg and must be harvested therefrom for further processing. One method of producing vaccines, such as influenza vaccines, is to use fertilized avian (chicken) eggs. The eggs are injected with the viruses and, after a sufficient time of incubation to allow the virus to multiply, the eggs are opened to harvest the viruses. Harvesting typically involves the collection of the allantoic fluid contained in the allantoic sac of a fertilized egg. The viruses are then separated from the fluid, purified, and inactivated to produce the final vaccine product.
In order to harvest the desired biologics within the egg, the egg shell must be opened. In some instances, a blade implemented on an automated decapping system may cut the top section or “egg cap” of the egg to provide access to the allantoic fluid within. Thereafter, various means can be utilized to remove the allantoic fluid for further processing. Such conventional automated decapping systems, however, typically produce debris-filled working environments in which egg fluids and egg cap shell debris and artifacts inundate the system due to the mass quantity of eggs decapped thereby during a harvesting production run.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an egg decapping system capable of reducing or otherwise minimizing egg cap debris and artifacts that linger about the egg decapping system after a decapping process is completed on a grouping of avian eggs. Furthermore, it would be desirable to provide an associated method to facilitate decapping of avian eggs in a manner that reduces build-up of egg cap debris and artifacts in an egg decapping system.